I recently posted this photo on my Instagram feed and was amazed by how many people liked it! Some meals are just the perfect combination of nutritious and delicious, not to mention appealing to the eye. This deconstructed fajita in a taco salad style was one of those meals. When it's not in a salad, I do this meal with Food for Life's sprouted grain wrap- the only wrap I have yet to find without hydrogenated oils and tons of unnatural ingredients. The basis of this meal is comprised of four parts- 1) refried black or kidney beans, 2) sautéed bell peppers and onions, 3) fresh tomato salsa, and 4) fresh guacamole. 





Fajita Taco Salad
(Serves 4)

Beans
2 cups (approximately) black beans or kidney beans
1.5 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin 
Hot sauce (optional)
Salt and pepper
Water

Put the beans in a sauce pan on the stove on med-high heat and cover with water. Add seasoning and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low and allow to simmer for a short time, then mash the beans until you reach a desired consistency. 

Peppers
3 medium mixed colour bell peppers, cut into strips 
1 lg cooking onion, cut in half and sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Add olive oil to a frying pan at high heat. When hot, add peppers and onions, and salt and pepper. Continuously stir the peppers and onions until they have brightened in colour and have just turned soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. 

Salsa
4 medium tomatoes, deseeded if possible and finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely minced 
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Remove as many seeds from the tomatoes as possible in order to keep your salsa from becoming too watery. Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix together. 

Guacamole 
2 large ripe avocados 
1/2- 1 lemon, depending on size
Salt and pepper

Juice lemon into a bowl and remove any pits. Add avocado and salt and pepper and mash all ingredients with a fork. Season more to taste. 

To serve
2 small heads of romaine lettuce, washed, dried and chopped
A large handful of organic corn chips, crushed 

Divide lettuce into 4 large bowls. Top with cooked peppers, then corn chips, beans, guacamole and salsa. Add some whole corn chips for dipping. And don't forget a nice hot sauce on the table! Enjoy! 

For the past few days I've been giving nutrition a lot of thought. 9 weeks into motherhood, with around the clock bouncing, swinging, standing, squatting, bending, cooing, carrying, dancing, feeding and smiling, all for the little guy, takes a LOT out of you. My body is getting sore all over. I'm getting tired. I'm beginning to reach for the classics... caffeine, and sugar.

I know as well as anyone that once you start on the sugar/coffee train, it's hard to get off. It's not a sustainable solution. I need real nutrition to maintain this sore skeleton, to build these worn out muscles, to create milk for my growing guy, and to fuel this sleepy brain. Enter more planned snacks, some hearty meals, and more salads. Let's start with this one.



Black Bean and Corn, Chopped Salad
(Serves 4)

Prepare the dressing below in a small bowl and set aside. Then, in a large bowl, combine the following: 

1 can rinsed and drained black beans (about 1.5cups)
1 cup of corn kernels
1 orange or red bell pepper, diced slightly bigger than the corn/bean size
a handful of snow peas, chopped in similar sized pieces to the bell pepper
3 leaves of medium sized kale, stems removed, chopped in small pieces
1/2 medium cooking onion, minced small, as you would with garlic
2 med-large cloves of garlic well minced 

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil 
1/8th c white vinegar
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
pepper

With some sprouted grain toast, I could eat half of this salad for dinner or lunch. It also works as the perfect kind of snack to give lasting energy to those of us in need. Enjoy!  

This is a really delicious, filling, and best of all, quick salad for an easy meal. Serve it with some fresh bread for a bit of balance and you've got an amazing, well rounded meal full of taste and packed with nutrients. 

On a plate, layer:
baby spinach
thinly sliced purple cabbage
thinly sliced purple or Spanish onion
thinly sliced tomatoes
sliced (or canned) green olives
toasted chopped almonds (dry toasted in a pan on medium heat until fragrant and roasted)


Drizzle this with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and some pepper and eat up! It's way more filling than it looks!

This salad has happened a couple times before today, but today is the first time I wrote down a recipe. If I were more efficient I'd have recipes coming at you every day! But when I get into the groove of cooking it's hard for me to stop and write down measurements and notes... but I'm learning.

I really love this salad. It's good for a whole meal, perhaps a lunch with some carrots and hummus to snack on, or a dinner with some fresh bread. It's perfect for picnics too. 





Roasted Beet and Kale Salad with Wild Rice
(makes 4 meal-sized portions)

Cook 1 cup of wild rice as usual with 1 3/4 cups water. When rice is cooked, cool completely. It's a good idea to make the rice the day beforehand or use some leftover rice.

Roast 1lb of beets. Keep the skins on but trim the ends and wash them. Cut them to a uniform medium size and toss with some oil and salt and pepper in a roasting pan. Roast in the oven for 1hr at 400F, stirring halfway. When finished and cooled, slice beets into small bite sized pieces. 

Wash, dry and de-stem 4 large leafs of kale. Slice kale leafs into thin slices and put in a big bowl.

1/3 c roasted sunflower seeds. (Toasted walnuts or almonds could also work well.)

Add cooled rice and beets to the kale. Mix in sunflower seeds and add  the dressing and toss. Serve cold.

Dressing
1/4 c olive oil
1/3 c fresh lemon juice
1/8 c pure maple syrup
2 cloves of finely minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Enjoy! 

Personal growth is writing down a recipe as I make it. 

Okay, so I could probably aim a little higher in my personal growth but this is a new development for me and will surely lead to many more tried and tested recipes to come!

I've made this dressing many times and use it for kale salad, romaine salad, and kale chips. It would also be great as a sandwich spread or a zesty dressing in a wrap. Once you have your ingredients together, this dressing takes no time to make. It yields about 1/2 a cup when mixed together.


Nutritional Yeast-Tahini Dressing

1/2 cup nutritional yeast (from organic/natural food section at your grocery store)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp water 
2 Tbsp tahini
1 Tbsp light miso
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
black pepper  

Mix and enjoy right away or refrigerate and use within a couple of weeks.

Today I used all of this dressing for one bunch of washed, and chopped kale. I massaged the dressing into the kale for a couple of minutes. I ate half the kale and put the other half in the fridge. Kale softens with the dressing so it becomes even better the second day.  

My weekly vegan meal delivery service has just finished its 5th week. Cooking 4 meals for a large group is much more time consuming than I would have thought! However, when I'm organized and in a good rhythm it hardly feels like work. Today I finished off two salads and the lentil pasta dish for this week. I even had enough time to sit down and eat the extra bean salad, and what a treat that was! I snapped a quick photo, which lead to a recipe request, so here it is. 






White Bean and Parsley Salad
(serves 4- side dish)

4 cups cooked white beans
2 cups parsley, chopped
1 cup cubed zucchini
1/2 purple onion, minced

Dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 cloves finely minced garlic
salt and pepper  

Combine all ingredients. Prepare dressing, add and stir. 
Feel free to adjust to your taste!

Today I'm here to tell you that parsley needs more credit. Sure, you can sprinkle it over pasta and make a bland plate look brighter, but parsley is a powerhouse herb, densely packed with nutrients, antioxidants, fiber, blood sugar stabilizers, B vitamins and is one of the richest sources of Vitamin K! Thus, it should be consumed in large amounts regularly! Okay, it may seem weird that I'm pushing it as a staple in your house, but if you consider that I regularly use it in my smoothies (seriously, try it), for juicing, to add to recipes and to star in salads, it truly has become a staple in my house. When I bring it home from the grocery store, I fill up a glass of water, drop the parsley stems in there and it stays fresh and turgid (grade 10 science class, right) for days.

That being said, here's a delicious salad that came about the other day. With quinoa, parsley, carrots, onions, garlic and lemon, this salad is a bit of a powerhouse super salad itself. Full of protein and phytonutrients this is delicious, fresh and energizing.

Parsley-Quinoa Salad 

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (rinse in a fine sieve, add to pot with a little less than 1 c water. Cover and bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low, keep covered and cook for 20(ish) minutes or until done. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.)
3 cups packed fresh parsley- washed, dried and chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 a small onion minced (for flavour rather than texture- so chop finely)
3 cloves of garlic finely minced
1/4 cup olive oil
6 tablespoons lemon (or to taste)
1/2 - 1 teaspoons salt
pepper to taste

Mix together everything other than the quinoa. Then add the cooked and cooled quinoa to the fresh ingredients, and mix again. Feel free to add more or less of everything, according to your tastes and desire. Be flexible! And enjoy!